An Azerbaijani freight plane has crashed in Afghanistan killing seven crew members while two survived, the Caucasus nation's aviation authorities said today.
The Antonov-12 plane that belonged to Azerbaijan's Silk Way cargo airline crashed on takeoff from Dwyer airbase in the southern Helmand province, Azerbaijan's civil aviation authority said in a statement.
The plane crashed on Wednesday afternoon at around 14:30 local time (10:00 GMT), the statement said.
Seven of the plane's nine crew -- five Azerbaijanis, one Ukrainian, and one Uzbek -- were killed in the crash.
Two Ukrainain aircraft mechanics survived the accident. "Their condition is stable and satisfactory," the statement said.
The plane had been leased from Silk Way and was flying without cargo to Mary in Turkmenistan to refuel. It had earlier flown from Bagram airfield to Helmand.
Azerbaijan's civil aviation authority said it had "launched an investigation into the incident."
Previously a cargo plane operated by Silk Way and carrying supplies for the NATO mission crashed into mountains in Afghanistan in 2011 as it tried to land at Bagram, killing all nine crew.
